Woods Headed To Winston-Salem

Spencer Cagle

07/12/2007

Late Wednesday night, Tony Woods picked up his cell phone at his hotel in Augusta, Georgia and called Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser. Although Woods had spoken with Prosser on several occasions in the past regarding school, basketball, and life, this conversation had a different outcome – Woods' verbal commitment to play basketball in Winston-Salem.

"I actually committed last night," Tony Woods said Thursday evening from the Peach Jam in North Augusta, South Carolina. "I wanted to go ahead and get it over with. It's Peach Jam. I wanted to be able to come out and play and not have to worry about things like that."

The verbal commitment likely put Coach Prosser at ease too as he sat courtside Thursday night, watching his future players in action. Coach Prosser certainly has to be excited about a future frontline of Al-Farouq Aminu, Ty Walker, and Tony Woods, just as he was excited about Woods' commitment.

"He was ecstatic, just thrilled," Woods noted. "He was happy. Then when Farouq did it, that just put the icing on the cake. He almost had a heart attack probably. We were there together, but [Farouq] called later. He had to check with his mom and make sure it was ok with her and then he called back and committed too."

Woods, who was also recruited by a host of other top programs and received a scholarship offer from national champion Florida, committed to Wake Forest along with fellow AAU teammate Al-Farouq Aminu. "We wanted to play together, but that's not all it's about," Woods noted. "It's an Ivy League education at Wake Forest. It's the ACC with good competition and they've got a great point guard so we'll be surrounded with great players. It's just a great fit for us all around."

Just over a month ago, Wake Forest was not even on the college list for the 6'11, 230-pound center. With a little bit of luck and AAU teammate Al-Farouq Aminu pushing him to visit, that all changed in early June. "They'd been recruiting me but I never, before Farouq mentioned them, really liked them to be honest. When [Billy] Donovan took the job with Orlando, I was supposed to go to Florida but I went to [visit] Wake because I didn't want to waste a day. I went to Wake, gave them a look, and it was nice. I liked the small environment and the education they offer me there because if I don't make it, I'll have something good to fall back on."

Woods will sign his letter of intent to play basketball at Wake Forest in November.